


Nailed It

by orphan_account



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Care, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Mustang likes to keep his hands clean, Nails, Salons, Something stupid i came up with on the way back from getting my nails done
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:49:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23190421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Edward sees Mustang slipping into a shop on Ramsey Street. Edward follows him—————One of my headcanons is that Mustang gets manicures to keep his hands tidy. Then i thought of Ed and automail and things started happening in my BRAIN.
Relationships: Edward Elric & Roy Mustang
Comments: 3
Kudos: 37





	Nailed It

Edward shoved his hands in his pockets as he sloped down the streets of East City with his little brother at his back. They weaved through the busy streets in companionable silence, mulling over what information they’d found during their last mission, that is to say, fuck all. Miserably, Ed blew his bangs out of his face as they waited at a junction for the traffic to pass.

Across the way, Ed saw a certain Bastard swaggering down the pavement with a doe-eyed blonde, who was dressed very lasciviously, twittering on his arm. He smirked outrageously at the woman and bent to whisper something in her ear that made her giggle loudly at him and flutter her eyelashes. The Colonel was out of uniform, dressed in a dark three piece suit. It was startling to Ed to see the man in a somewhat normal setting. It made him seem more... human.

But then he caught Edward’s eyes from across the street, grinned widely and the illusion was shattered.

“What the hell are you looking at, bastard?” Edward screamed. Alphonse let out a sound of disappointment, mumbled something about going on ahead and “please don’t harass the Colonel, brother,” and made his escape before another word could be spoken.

Meanwhile, the Colonel had already meandered down the street with his date and Edward, who was silently fuming at being ignored, trailed after him. The couple stopped in front of what looked like a barber’s shop to Ed but on closer inspection appeared to be a... salon? _He must be slacking off work to accompany his lady friend_ , Ed thought darkly.

Mustang and his woman ducked into the shop and after a moment of deliberation, so did Ed. The Colonel turned around and, on seeing the blonde alchemist was still there, opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted.

“Mr. Mustang! Please come in, will you be having your usual?” The woman had spoke, an older woman, with chestnut hair and tanned skin got up from behind the desk in the corner of the room. “Yes, please, Rachael. This is my sister Madeleine.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you!” Madeleine said happily, sticking her hand out for a handshake. Rachael smiled at her and directed them to two chairs over by window with an array of neatly organised tools. She turned back to the door and seemed to start at seeing Ed still lurking there.

“Oh my! Are you with Mr Mustang? I’m afraid I didn’t see you there...” she trailed off hesitantly at hearing the growls from the blonde kid and the stifled snickers from the Colonel.

“Yes Rachael, he’s with me.”

“Oh, of course! So will you be wanting a manicure as well?”

Edward suddenly felt very cold. Mustang’s snickers had stopped.

“Um, no... I, uh, I have... automail, for my right hand...” Edward wasn’t usually this ashamed about displaying his automail, but being in a room with such attractive people suddenly made him feel very vulnerable, in a way. The tense moment passed when the Colonel clapped his hands suddenly and said, “Well we will just have to paint the automail as well!”

“W-wait a minute! I never said I wanted one!”

“Oh? Then why did you follow us in, shorty?”

“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLI- whoa hey let go of me, bastard!”

Mustang unceremoniously dropped the blonde boy into one of the chairs at the table and set his hands on the other alchemist’s shoulders to prevent him from getting up. As Madeleine was seen to by another technician, Rachael moved around the desk and sat in front of him with a warm bowl of water. Seeing no way out, the struggling boy relented and pulled off his gloves. Rachael worked quickly and professionally, scraping away the muck on the nails of his left hand and rubbing in some cream. At some point Mustang flounced off to be seen to by a girl called Emily.

“What colour would you like them to be?” She asked. Edward quickly glanced at the intimidating array of colours on the shelf behind her head. He smirked and quickly chose his colour. As he let the nails on his left hand dry, Rachael worked on painting the fingertips of his right automail hand. _I hope Winry doesn’t kill me for this_ , he sweated nervously. While he was waiting for them to dry, he glanced around the room. Mustang was having his nails painted a sensible clear colour and was chatting softly with Emily and Madeleine (who was his sister? Mustang had sisters? Oh god, Mustang had a mother!?).

“Yo Mustang?” The man in question looked up. “Why did you want me to do this?”

The Colonel frowned for a moment, a rare moment of seriousness for the seemingly carefree man, then smiled.

“You’re always so busy Fullmetal, you need to relax a bit more. Besides, I can’t have one of my own team looking scruffy, can I?”

“GODDAMN BASTA-“

————

Later that night, as Edward was trying to get to sleep in his hotel room with Al reading quietly in the corner, he looked up at the bright crimson polish on his fingers and smiled slightly. It was... nice. To look nice. To look cared for. To be cared for. He frowned, realising that Al hadn’t had the opportunity. And likely wouldn’t...

No. Don’t think like that.

“Hey, Al? You know, there’s this salon on Ramsey Street. We should go together sometime when we get your body back...”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this short piece! This was a lot of fun for me to write and I’ll hopefully be producing more fluffy one shots like this in the future! xD
> 
> \- Roe  
> Add me on discord! Name: Frazzle #8442


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